1955 to 1972
I grew up in one of the bungalows at the foot of One Tree Hill and often spent weekends and school holidays with the Keeper's children, Peter and Jonathon Scott. One Tree Hill was a fascinating place to spend our weekends and school holidays. I remember the sand pit and an old spa. There was also a wartime pillbox/gun emplacement placed centrally on the hillside.
My father worked at Cawdor Hall farm at the foot of the hill so I also spent time with the farm children, and if we weren't building straw camps from the bales we were fooling around in the barns. At Guy Fawkes we always had a bonfire which the children mostly built. We used to make a guy using old clothes and straw each year, with the Springfield Cafe being a tremendous source of firework money from "penny for the Guy" sessions.
Photography was a serious hobby of mine and I have several photos from the 1960's and 1970's. I lived there from 1955 to 1972 and remember steam trains passing under the bridge beside the farm and the introduction of traffic lights at the junction of One Tree Hill road and the A13, prior to which this was an accident blackspot. I recall my father telling me that, prior to WWII, there were plans for a hotel at this junction.
My memory of Winters is one of snow. I had a succession of toboggans and would spend Winter evenings and weekends sliding down the hill until darkness fell.
There was a small cottage close to the garage at the foot of the hill, and I recall the occupant being Mrs Shipp.
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RE: RE: 1955 to 1972
I remember that farm. By the crossroads at the bottom of One Tree Hill. There was often a big old Fowler traction engine to be seen there. Said engine was usually to be seen in the Corringham Carnival parade. The gun emplacement near the top of the hill - could that have been a surveyor's triangulation point?
Comment from Bob Patterson on Tuesday, 3rd August 2010.
RE: RE: 1955 to 1972
My memories of Corringham go back to about 1939, when as a seven year old I can remember collecting various things for our smallholding in Vange. During the war my uncle drove a lorry for The Ministry of Agriculture and he would often take me with him to Cawlder Hall Farm to deliver or pick up tractors. As a boy I would spend many a happy time around One Tree Hill with my friends and how excited we were when we discovered what we thought was a long lost temple or something. It was, as I found out later a building where people could buy Spa Water up until a few years earlier. I worked at LATHOL from 1952 'til 1955 and still see some of my old workmates about Corringham today. (2010)
One of my jobs as a driver was to collect the bread rolls each morning for the canteen from Deeds the Bakers in Lampits Hill. There was a good selection of everyday shops in The Parade, Cannings Electrical, Newmans Butchers, News and Sweets, Fish & Chips, Greengrocers, Hardware and many others. We had Central Garage, which was a typical village garage with a couple of Shell pumps and a workshop. There was a small Village (?) Hall next door. When we moved to the new bungalows in Digby Road in 1958 we did our weekly shopping at Danes on the corner of Church Road and Fobbing Road, and bought our meat at the little butcher's shop next door (opposite Audawn Coaches). We would take it home on our motor bike, going up Recreation Avenue because Digby Road was not made up until the new builds. The road was blocked at the end of Digby Road and Woodbrooke Way until the houses were all finished.
Comment from Alan Wilkins on Sunday, 3rd October 2010.